From Amazon.com
Wales, the 12th Century: As told by Brenda, a mistress of Owain, the Prince of Wales, the court of Gwynedd faces the threat of amalgamation by the English realm and the Christian religion. Afraid of a fateful prophecy about her newborn son, Brenda flees Owain and Wales for the safety of a druid camp in Ireland. Comforted by their spiritual beliefs and the handsome Sein, Brenda begins to adapt to druid ways and to study druid knowledge. But when Owain's men recapture her, she claims that her son Madoc has died and reluctantly returns to court. Disgusted with Owain's bloodlust and the rivalry among his mistresses and sons, Brenda dreams of the day she'll return to her son and the druid community. But Madoc is fostered to a local druid teacher, just as the danger of external invasion and internal betrayal threaten Owain's power. Brenda fears the disintegration of Gwynedd's stability and the loss of the druid values, and finds her fate closely bound to her old lover and her secret son.
Anna Lee Waldo's extensive research, rich details, and skillful writing make this medieval Welsh world of family betrayals, political intrigue, battling religious faiths, and unrequited love spring to life. Like Clavell's Shogun or Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, Circle of Stones describes a historical period with an understanding that highlights the timeless aspects of human nature. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
From Publishers Weekly
Researching Sacajawea, her first historical novel, Waldo encountered the legend of the blond Welshman, Madoc, who sailed to the Americas three centuries before Columbus. That tale inspired this well-researched but sometimes stolidly paced novel whose Irish heroine, Brenda, is the favored mistress of Owain, Prince of Gwynedd in North Wales, and mother of Madoc. When Owain falls prey to a superstitious prophecy and demands the newborn boy be put to death, Brenda flees with the help of Druids. On her forced return to Owain, she pretends Madoc has been killed. Brenda finds she cannot love Owain, but she does become his trusted adviser and a talented healer. The narrative is anecdotal and episodic, offering a variety of historical characters in the years 1151-1170 A.D, and employing archaic language and spelling. Waldo takes some unconventional risks: Owain's two wives, Gladys and Christiannt, both New Religionists (Christians), are presented as foolish, selfish women, in marked contrast to wise, courageous Brenda, who favors the Old Religionists (the Druids). Madoc, predestined at birth to be a leader and man of peace, later comes to seek out his mother and serve his father. Brenda is only one of several fully realized characters, a woman who struggles with the male-dominated 12th-century social code but still orchestrates a fulfilling life for herself. At times Waldo's determination to represent the religious and political history of the epoch retards the thrust of her narrative, but readers will appreciate the complex dynamics she portrays within her fact-filled epic.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
